Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church

Day 16 of the Great Fast: Picking Ourselves Up In the Christopher Nolan Batman Begins film, Thomas Wayne asks his son, Why do we fall? When young Bruce Wayne had no answer, his father simply said So that we can learn to pick ourselves up again. What a profound message to teach a child, especially in our world today! For some reason, people constantly expect perfectionin every hour of every day. We expect perfection from our spouses, our parents, our children, our friends..., our coworkers, and so forth. Perhaps it’s because we live in a world governed by photoshop or tailoring social media to reflect the perfect life. Perhaps it’s because we have celebrities and professional athletes who live the perfect life telling us how to raise our children or vote politically or fulfill our hopes and dreams. Whatever the case, we are far from perfect, and it is important to recognize that failure, falling down, is a part of the human experience. What happens at the end of Great Fast and Passion Week? We celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord: the Feast of feasts that shows us that God conquers alleven deathand that, even in the face of all the ugliness, hatred, betrayal, in short human imperfection, our Lord is still with us, and He has no plans of abandoning us. This Lenten season, this spiritual retreat, this Lenten Spring of renewal and enlightenment should serve as a way for us to work on our mistakes, but in order to do this, we must acknowledge that we make mistakes. We must acknowledge that we, in fact, do fall down, and we need to work on raising ourselves back up. Will we fall again? Hopefully not, but we probably will. The success of our spiritual struggles and triumphs all resides in our individual determination to make ourselves better, to pick ourselves back up. We can do this by growing in our faith, by placing our trust in God. As we pray, as we fast, as we continue to do good works for others, may we be mindful of our shortcomings and work on them, which will help lead us closer to God. He is by our side, and much like the lesson He shares with us in the Ressurection, He is with us always. We just need to find our way there, to journey and find the empty tomb and rejoice in our new, risen selves!

Day 15 of the Great Fast: Finding Peace As we go through our daily lives, we tend to live hastily, in a rush, seemingly with no time and full of last minute decisions. Amid all of this hurry and business, it may seem to us that we do not sin; however, in a life filled with so many responsibilities, meetings, obligations, and appointments, we can easily forget about God altogether and not even recognize our sinful nature. Think about it... we wake up; we check our phone for th...e latest news in the world or on social media, perhaps we put the television on to see what the news channels have to say. We pay bills, feed pets, prepare breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, and bolt out the door for a busy day. Amid all of this, do we remember our morning prayers? Our prayer of thanks before eating? Are we patient with our family and friends as we prepare for our busy day? Then, we enter the public sphere, where God is all but forgotten. We're too busy thinking about the day ahead of us or cursing other drivers on the road or listening to music or podcasts to pray in the car. We enter work and meetings without prayer because there's no time or perhaps it doesn't even enter our mind to do so. We go shopping, meet with friends, have dinner, and conclude our stressful day, all without a thought of prayer, a thought of God. Typically, we leave that to Sunday morning. However, even with the seeming fullness of our lives, our gainful employment, the size of our families or circle of friends, we tend to feel empty and, sometimes, miserable. This is because we do not take the time to nourish our soul. We do not take the time to take a spiritual inventory of ourselves and seek to make amends with God and others. Prayer is a conscious action that we should participate in each and every day. This is yet another benefit of the Great Fast. It calls our attention to what we need to do in order to find peace in ourselves, in our lives. Part of this solution is more prayer, which brings peace of mind. Think of the Great Fast as a doctor's prescription; if you follow the regiment a doctor gives you, you begin to physically heal. If you follow the regiment of the Great Fast, which the doctors of the Church have prescribed for centuries, you begin to spiritually heal. Let us work toward finding peace within ourselves through prayer and repentance. In this way, we can share this beautiful experience, this unity with God, with others and help them grow closer to our Lord and His goodness!

Sunday Evening Lenten Vespers for our Protopresbytery (Deanery)

Call today to reserve your meals!

Day 14/Second Sunday of the Great Fast: The Palsied Man Typically, the second Sunday of the Great Fast is reserved for commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas, as vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century is acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy, however at the heart of today's Gospel lesson lies a deeper connection for us. In fact, this Sunday may in fact be the most personal for us as we journey through the Great Fast. In the Gospel, we see Christ...Continue reading